“And… forcefield!” Jake shouted. Upon command, a sphere of blue energy enveloped the eight year old, pushing his 7-year-old sister Cindy away from him.

“Wow!” She said, in awe. “Your power is so cool!”

When Jake’s power had manifested, his entire family was ecstatic.

“He can never get hurt now,” his mother had cried, tearing up at the thought of his safety.

This is gonna be so great!

—

“I hate this power,” the now 15-year old boy said to his best friend Neil.

“Why? You’re like, invincible,” Neil replied back.

“Yeah, maybe, if the forcefields worked right! When I try and make one appear, it’s almost always wonky! Like, wrong size or in the wrong place.”

“I was playing baseball last week, and the ball going to hit me dead-on, so I tried activating a field around my head, and I ended up with a tiny one. Covering my crotch!”

“Yikes. I see how that may be a problem,” Neil grimaced.

“I’ve done good ones before. I even protected my sister when she fell off her scooter.

“The good forcefields only seem to happen when I’m not thinking. But, when I see the danger, all I can do is think. It’s not instinctive, and I don’t if I can fix that.”

What am I going to do?

—

Jake was 17 when his family was T-boned at an intersection.

No matter how hard he willed it, his forcefield hadn’t gotten big enough to protect everyone.

Cindy was badly injured.

And he could see the looks that his parents gave him when they went to go visit her.

Quick, pointed glares that said, You could’ve protected her.

—

“I’m sorry, Cindy,” Jake whispered. “I couldn’t do it. You’d admired my power for so long, and I couldn’t even help you.”

“But I promise, I won’t let anything hurt you again.”

And the energy sparked to life.

“What are you-“ he started, as the forcefield that he’d created around him and Cindy’s ICU bed started to grow larger.

“St-Stop!” he screamed as the sphere moved outwards, hugging the walls and filling the room like a bubble as it expanded.

He could hear the scrape of equipment being pushed towards the walls and crushed.

He could hear the people too.

Screaming, their bodies being compacted and suffocated against whatever surface they had the misfortune of being close to.

“Stop, please, just stop,” he sobbed hysterically, covering his ears and trying to drown out the noise.

And it did.

The bubble popped, and he could hear the clangs and thuds as suspended objects fell to the floor.

But it stayed silent after that.

“No, no God no. No, please,” he whimpered.

“Anyone, is there anyone out there?” he called into the silent hospital. “Anyone, ANYONE, PLEASE! ANSWER!”

But all he could hear was the echo of his own call.

As he collapsed to his knees, a single, awful thought came to him.

It did what it was supposed to.

It… protected you.